30/08/2021
NEWS STORY
Adding insult to injury, the Spa stewards hit Lance Stroll with a time penalty thus demoting the Canadian to last position.
On a day widely seen as farcical, it is hard to decide which moment was the 'icing on the cake', though the jubilant celebrations following the two (one) lap parade will take some beating.
On the other hand, the shortest race in the history of the sport - officially just 3 minutes, 27.071 seconds - subsequently got a little longer for Lance Stroll.
Initially set to start the (original) race from the back of the grid due to his 5-place grid penalty from Hungary, the Aston Martin driver gained a position due to Kimi Raikkonen starting from the pitlane.
In the wake of Sergio Perez' off on his way to the grid Stroll moved up another position, and was therefore 18th on the grid when the field followed Bernd Maylander on the 'lap(s) of shame'.
However, the Canadian was subsequently issued a 10s time penalty for an unapproved rear wing change earlier - even though, as most will argue, Perez faced no such penalty for having his crashed car repaired.
The Stewards considered the extraordinary and unprecedented circumstances, and exercising their authority under Articles 11.9.1 and 11.9.2.a of the FIA International Sporting Code, noted that although the assembly was changed during the period where the race was stopped, the same principles apply as for a race suspension.
Normally the penalty for such a breach would be to start from the pitlane, however as the cars were already starting from the pitlane this would have been meaningless.
The approximate equivalent would be a drive through penalty, however in view of the fact that the race has been "shortened", a lesser penalty of 10 seconds was imposed, thereby dropping the Aston Martin driver to last.
Luckily for Ferrari, Charles Leclerc escaped sanction when the Italian team changed his tyres on the grid following the delayed start, which is not permitted.
However the team rectified the mistake within a matter of minutes and prior to the car leaving the grid, therefore although a breach of the regulations had occurred, the stewards imposed no penalty as the breach was rectified.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Spa, here.